Organizations have an interest in generating news coverage for their products, programs, services, or public policy issues. Such coverage can heighten public awareness and help an organization achieve its strategic goals.
Businesses, for example, may seek news media coverage of a particular product or service in order to increase sales or revenue, launch a new product, or cultivate business leads. Nonprofit organizations may seek media coverage in order to support fundraising efforts, promote an event, and increase their visibility among volunteers, donors or members. Organizations involved in advocacy may seek news media coverage in an effort to shape public opinion, influence public policy, or build support for an initiative at the local, state or federal level. Publicly traded companies may seek publicity to attract new investors, increase shareholder value, and ultimately lower the cost of capital. Even specific individuals such as writers, performing artists, athletes, speakers and consultants may seek news media coverage in an effort to establish themselves as a go-to resource for the media, publicize their expertise and advance their careers.
Favorable news media coverage can also help an organization achieve broader goals such as establish a brand or reputation, build customer loyalty, improve employee morale, as well as communicate with the general public or a targeted constituency on a given topic.
But while many business leaders, nonprofit executives, elected officials and government employees seek to obtain positive news coverage in print, broadcast or online media, they do not know if their news item measures up to news media standards. They may also not know enough about what constitutes news to go about generating a viable story.
To make obtaining coverage that much more difficult, newsrooms typically receive many potential news stories each day. Television newsrooms in Florida receive an average of 372 news releases per day, yet only about 4 percent of those releases are actually considered as potential stories. A major market newsroom gets hundreds of press releases every day and often the decision on whether a given story receives press coverage is made in a matter of seconds.
Therefore, individuals seeking to generate news coverage or publicity for their organization need to know very specifically what reporters and editors look for when selecting news stories. While some individuals may be able to hire internal or external public relations counsel to help in these efforts, such counsel can be expensive, the need for publicity may not be frequent enough, or the organization may have other internal constraints that prevent or limit it from obtaining such counsel.
A need exists for a system and method to assist individuals and organizations who seek media coverage in assessing whether their news story ideas and news releases will receive coverage and if not, assist them in shaping stories that will receive the desired coverage.
A need exists for organizations to have an advance warning system to determine if circumstances or events exist that could lead to adverse coverage of their organization, product, etc. in the news media.